Finally I get to Stay!!

I got the letter from immigration yesterday - I have my green card at last!! There were times when I thought I'd never get though all the paperwork, but I can now stay without conditions, whatever that means.

Nicolas the Nudist in the Making!!

It's a good job I love Nicolas so much because he does the most annoying things!! For that last three nights he has taken off all his clothes and his diaper and slept butt naked. That would be very cute if it wasn't for the fact he is no where near potty trained so his bed is soaking wet. If he continues to do this I'm sewing him into his onesie so he can't take it off to get to his diaper!

James and Sarah are Engaged!!

We are so excited because James and Sarah are engaged! They got engaged several weeks ago and we wanted to celebrate with them, so we turned the annual Woodall Memorial Day get together into an engagement party for them. We celebrated yesterday as that was the only time Sarah could get off work.

Sarah with her parents Nick and Natalie.Luckily the weather stayed nice until after Adam had cooked all the food and we had eaten, and then the rain that had been threatening all day desended on us!

Adam and his youngest cousin Josh.
Josh and Jon

Kirsten and Jack.

Once the rain began the party moved inside.

Aunt Kay and Uncle David

Jaden, Nicolas, Luke, (on couch) Ben, Dannielle, Laura Beth, Ashley, (standing), Josh, Caitlyn, Woody, Adison and Adam.

The kids playing the Wii.

Erin, Tori and Jon

Adison loving her Daddy.

Gymnastics in the Yard

Jaden is very sweet with Nicolas and Adison, but it's Kirsten who entertains them and teaches Nicolas crazy things.
Nicolas suddenly wanted to do flips on the swing this week and of course it was because he'd seen Kirsten do it. He is strong enough that he can almost flip himself over, but he just needs a little push on the bottom and then over he goes.

He's learned how to undo snaps so he wanders around looking as if he's wearing a dress most of the time as he will undo his shorts.

I love how dizzy Nicolas is after he's spun and how he doesn't realize it!

The gymanstics was too much for Adison, she was happy eating a rose I gave her to smell.

Kirsten really impresses me with her skills and fearlessness. Already at 7 years old she can do things I never could do or ever will be able to do!!

Hanging Out with my Babies!

Yesteday Adam stayed home sorting out the pool for James and Sarah's engagment party so I took Nicolas to run errands with me. We stopped at Lowes and he got to sit on the lawn mowers, which is his favorite thing! Every time we drive past Lowes he says "ride mowers Mommy".

It was so nice to just have one child and so much quicker getting in and out of the car. It made me realise that there is a reason I get so tired because simple tasks like shopping take so much longer with two little ones and even longer with two big ones AND two little ones!!

We bought Nicolas a tball set this week which he loves. He's always hitting things with the baseball bat, so we thought we'd get him hitting properly.

He loves it and he's got pretty good hand and eye coordination, which he obviously gets from Adam, not me.

It kept him busy for about an hour, which is good going for a toy. Normally he gets bored of things within about 10 minutes.

Adsion ate her lunch on the porch and watched him. She thought he was very funny!
I have given up trying to feed her. I do what I said I would never do, and dump her food on the tray in front of her and she scoops it up.

She eats most things and is not losing weight, so she must be getting enough to eat. The problem is that I tend to put the food in front of her and then get on with something else as she is happy feeding herself. Because I fed Nicolas I would spend at least an hour a day talking to him while I fed him. I try to sit and talk to Adison while she eats, but I always seem to have something to do. She doesn't seem sad or less advanced because of it, but time will tell.

Now she can roll over she is very hard to settle in her crib. As soon as I lie her down, she flips over and pushes to sit up. I read to her while I give her her milk and she loves turning the pages of her books and she'll almost fall asleep in my arms, but as soon as she lies down she is wide awake. I've had to leave her to cry herself to sleep several times, which luckily doesn't take more than a few minutes. When she settles herself she always sleeps in such uncomfortable looking positions.

2nd Grade Picnic

We received an invite to Kirsten's 2nd Grade picnic on Tuesday. As usual it was during nap time but we went along and the kids did great. I never imagined that they would provide food for all the kids and any parents who attended, but they did. I'm constantly amazed by the things that the school does, I'm so glad that Jaden and Kirsten can go there.
Maybe all schools are like this here, and I'm sure lots are even better, but I am very impressed and have met quite a few parents, which makes me feel like I belong there. I'm also learning where everything is and what I have to do each time I go there, so it gets less daunting.

The kids had hot dogs, chips, cookies and drinks. I got to meet some of Kirsten's friends and she seems very happy.

Nicolas being Annoying at Swim Team

Nicolas doesn't understand that Jaden and Kirsten are busy and he can't play with them when they are at swim practice. He wants to be as close as possible to them all the time.

Kirsten was practicing her kicking and Nicolas was standing as close as he could.

After practicing in the pool they get to exercise on the side. Kirsten was doing leg raises and Nicolas kept trying to jump on top of her!

It gets very tiring following him around or watching him and then running after him when he tries to climb the fence, go out the gate or just generally make a nuisance of himself! He hasn't jumped in the pool yet so I feel lucky. He seems to realise it wouldn't be fun to fall in.

Awards Day

Monday as Awards day for Jaden and Kirsten. Jaden's ceremony was at 9:30am and Kirsten's was a 1pm, both perfect timing to coincide with nap time!! Nicolas was quite good and Adison was an angel so I could enjoy the awards ceremony as much as possible.

We had just been told the kids were getting awards but not what they were, so I had to wait with my camera on as soon as each award got towards the end of the alphabet. The curse of marrying a Woodall is that the kids always go last! I loved being a Broadhurst in school because I never had to go first, but I always got to go near the begining.

Jaden is the child in the middle of the photo with his head back and his eyes closed, not a good photo of him, but it shows the racial diversity of the kids elementary school. Most of the awards went to little Indian boys!

Jaden got an award for perfect attendance thanks to my rule that he's only allowed a day off if he shows me a fever or vomit!! There have been many days when he's begged to be allowed to stay home, but so far he's not produced a fever or vomit!! He is the child in a navy t-shirt and blue shorts with his back to the camera on the right of the screen saying perfect attendance. My zoom wasn't good enough to get good shots.

Kirsten received an award for extra effort which meant she had scored A's and B's in all her subjects for the last semester. This was a real achievement for Kirsten as she really struggled at her last school. Her teacher has been amazing and she is the one presenting Kirsten with her medal.

Kirsten is the one at the end of the line looking at her medal. The lady in the suit is the Principle. She is really lovely and seems well liked.

Noah and the Toilet Paper!

I just put Nicolas down for his nap and we read one of his favorite lift the flap bibles. We have been trying really hard to get him interested in potty training this week as he's nearly 2 1/2, so there has been lots of discussion of toilet related items. We read the Noah and the Ark story and as we were looking at all Noah's animals going into the ark, Nicolas suddenly points to the white scroll Noah is holding (presumably the list of all his animals), and says "Wook Mummy, Noah toilet paper!"

Caroline's Birthday!!

It was my friend Caroline's Birthday on Saturday so we had a girls night out in Midtown. Sam, Erin and Rebecca came too so it was a really good night out. It takes alot to get me out after 9pm at the moment, but Caroline was worth and we had a great night.


The birthday girl
The girls!

Erin, Rebecca and Sam

Erin and Rebecca

A drink for the birthday girl!!

And Rebecca!
Does Ben have competition?!!

Happy Birthday Caroline!

My Baby is Growing Up

Adison is going pretty fast when she crawls now but inspite of me trying to show her how to roll from her back to her front and then back up to crawling, she still just makes this distressed crying sound when she ends up on her back. She is 10 months old and as only ever rolled over 3 times!!

I had been thinking for a week or so now that I should lower her crib matress as it was still at the newborn, high level, but hadn't got around to it as I have to take the whole crib apart to do it. So on Friday about 1am I heard Adison making a weird crying noise, which is very unsual because once she is asleep she doesn't normally wake until at least 6:30am.

I went in to her room in the dark and felt around in the crib for her, thinking maybe she had got stuck under the changing table which sits over the crib, and she was sitting up in the crib in the corner!

As she can't get from her back onto her front, she has no chance of being able to lie herself back down to go to sleep if she some how manages to sit up in the crib! I laid her back down and she fell asleep. I put pillows all round her crib just incase she sat up again and somehow fell out before morning, but she was fine. Her matress is now at the lowest level so she seems so grown up, and much harder to reach!

Adison just loves the dog now she can crawl up to him. She loves him as much as Nicolas did at the same age, but now Leo is older he's much more relaxed and just lets her climb all over him.

I'm so glad he's such a sweet dog!

As you can see above, Adison toppled over from sitting and looks kind of suprised. She couldn't move and Leo kept wagging his tail in her face with she hated!

Unfortunately my plants aren't safe anymore. Nicolas destroyed my favorite peace lily when he was a bit younger than Adison so she is working on destroying any other plants she can find.

Nicolas loves it when Adam or I hold him and Adison at the same time. He shouts "two babies Mommy!! I big baby, Baby Rose little baby".

His favorite phrase at the moment is "I not Mommy", as in "please could you do this Nicolas?" and the reply being "I not Mommy!". His manners are great though and he says thank you nearly everytime and has started to remember to say excuse me when he pushes past you.